Hanshan Tang Books is the West’s foremost bookseller specializing in the Art of East Asia, South East Asia and Central Asia. Our site is updated with a new set of records six times a year, roughly every two months, corresponding with the publication of our regular printed lists. From List 141 on, we added a note of each book’s last appearance in a printed catalogue to our online records. (You will see a note of the form: “Was item XX in printed List XX.”) You can now also search the site by item and list number. See the Search page for details.

We have know Gerald for many years and are so pleased to see his revised “Handbook of
Marks on Chinese Ceramics” published. It is an excellent book and we use it all the time. It is available from Gerald directly through his website. The link you will find above.

Inscriptions and marks of varying types appeared on Chinese pottery and porcelain with increasing frequency from the Tang Dynasty (618 – 906 CE) through to the Republic in the early years of the 20th century.
From imperial marks to the many “hall” and auspicious marks used by scholars, collectors, potters and artists this is the essential book for all professional buyers, collectors and antique and art dealers with an interest in Chinese ceramics. Written in a way that will appeal to the beginner as well as the experienced professional, the introduction contains colour illustrations of a varied range of objects together with their marks – all colour images courtesy of Sotheby’s.
Building on the gradual success of, first the unique small format ‘Guide’ (450 marks) published in 1987 and reprinted twice, and then the much acclaimed and more comprehensive ‘Handbook’ (1800 marks) published in 1994, this NEW and EXPANDED publication now contains TWICE the content with approaching 3,400 marks spread over 310 pages.

Almost 15 years in the making, it is the only reference work in any language to deal so exhaustively with the entire range of these very diverse marks. This time, the almost 3,400 individual marks are beautifully reproduced in colour and still compiled in sections and groupings to make recognition of such unfamiliar shapes as easy as possible. All of the marks are translated into English together with the pinyin Romanisation. The range of marks includes not only those in the regular kaishu script but also some 500 marks redrawn in the classical zhuanshu seal script form together with a range of pictorial symbols. Finally the very detailed 70 page Directory section then provides a wide range of historical, dating, geographical and mythological information, where available, for each mark.
A detailed cyclical table (shown below) is included for translating the jiazi dating system often included in commemorative marks.